1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to the design of a screwless computer drive assembly. Specifically, in the present invention, a traditional drive mounting bracket or computer chassis is equipped with lock sliders which, when engaged, compress flexible flanges into standard screw holes located on the computer drive.
2. Description of Prior Art
Historically, computer drives such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, DVD drives and the like, were attached to the chassis of a computer using standard micro sized machine screws. While such method of attachment was secure and precise, it required significant amounts of labor. Further, even in the most careful of environments, damaged resulted to the other internal components of the computer due to dropped screws and tool slippage.
The perceived solution in the computer industry to the problems inherent in the screw type drive attachment means has been to incorporate separate drive rails in the chassis design which allowed the computer drive being attached to slide into and then be locked into place. Typical of this type of attachment are those inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,806,949; 5,801,920; 5,734,557; 5,599,080; 5,595,501; and 5,262,923. This solution, however, did not eliminate the use of micro sized machine screws to attach the rails to the computer drives. Additionally, use of rails necessitated the need for some type of electrical conductive grounding path between the metal drive housing and the metal computer chassis as disclosed on page 1, line 64 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,557. Since the rail method of attachment did not eliminate the need for micro sized machine screws and in fact created a need for additional grounding, this method has not reduced the costs and complexity of the traditional screw type assembly.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a computer drive assembly that is both easy as well as inexpensive. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer drive assembly that does not require the use of screws.
The present invention completely eliminates the needs for screws or assembly tools while installing a drive component into a computer chassis. In the present invention, flexible tabs which are flanged and pointed inward at the end are located along the sides of the drive mounting bracket or computer chassis at positions which correspond to the standardized screw holes in computer drives. To guide the computer drive into place, drive support flanges are also located on the drive mounting bracket or computer chassis.
The key to the screw less computer drive assembly are the lock sliders. Fashioned from rigid material such as that used in the drive mounting bracket or computer chassis, the lock sliders slide along the outside of the drive mounting bracket causing the flexible tabs to flex inward resulting in the ends of such tabs engaging the standardized screw holes in a typical computer drive. Once the ends of the flexible tabs have engaged the computer drive, such drive is locked securely in place.